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Everything Shuswap
by Mark Forsythe
“Thank God...this is better than gold.” Alexander Fortune, first settler at Enderby, 1866
The man is wearing an Adams River Salmon Run cap, bent low to the water and snapping photos of sockeye salmon thrashing near his feet. His smile seems as wide as the river itself. A record sockeye return has been painting the Adams River red, and people from around the world are fanned out along its banks to experience a magnificent bounty. This is a scene from Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park in 2010 where I first encountered outdoors enthusiast, environmental campaigner and fish lover, Jim Cooperman.
A resident of nearby Lee Creek for 48 years, he recently explained to CBC Radio that he was faced with a decision in 1969: “Go to jail, Vietnam or Canada -- which would you choose?” He headed north, built a log home with his wife, raised 5 children and worked at teaching, log home building and environmental advocacy. He began writing an outdoors column called Shuswap Passion for the Shuswap Market News, it was a personal dispatch for environmental stewardship. After a dozen years, that column has shapeshifted into a 240 page book.
Everything Shuswap spans geographic and human history: geology, ecosystems, watersheds, early contact with Secwepemc people and the tide of fur traders, gold seekers and pioneers who followed. There are boomtowns (some have retreated into bush), sternwheelers and railways that carried thousands into the region; historical and ecosystem maps, graphs and abundant archival and contemporary images. Once promoted as the “New Eldorado” to prospective fruit farmers in Europe and the U.S., the Shuswap landscape has been shaped by industrial development, dams, logging and agriculture. Some of its finest features have also been preserved in provincial parks, like Hunakwa Lake, “arguably the largest unroaded, protected wilderness lakes in the interior of North America at low elevation.”
Sandwiched between the more famous Okanagan, Kootenay and Thompson areas, the Shuswap is a region unto itself. Most British Columbians aren’t familiar with it, drive through it, or think it’s all about speed boats, houseboats and ATVs. The Shuswap watershed is vast -- a 9,644 square kilometre jigsaw puzzle of sub-drainages between the Thompson Plateau and Monashee Mountains. Its southern rivers and creeks stretch into what many consider the North Okanagan (at Grinrod); includes the Shuswap River, Adams River and Lake (second deepest in B.C. and nursery for 20% of the Fraser River sockeye runs), the Salmon, Spallumcheen and Eagle Rivers -- plus half a dozen others. Cooperman guides us through each watershed, pausing at key parks, valleys, old growth forests (including an interior rainforest), providing relevant historical context along the way. Early chapters on ecology and geology trace the physical landscape, while stories and profiles of indigenous peoples and settlers occupy most of the pages. There is a strong sense of place throughout.
“The underlying concept behind this book Is called bioregionalism, -- or politics of place, a term coined in the 1970s by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann. Bioregionalism is a way of life that focuses on regional self-sufficiency, environmental and economic sustainability, and a political structure that encourages citizen participation in local decision-making...the Shuswap is well situated to achieve bioregional objectives, as this region is blessed with rich farmland, plentiful and clean sources of water, a stellar cultural scene, stunning landscapes, and many close-knit communities.”
Among the historical figures profiled is English painter, Charles John Collings, whose work hangs in Canada’s National Gallery and London’s Royal Academy. After being compared to British artist J.M.W. Turner once too often, he pulled up stakes in 1910 to homestead with his family at the remote hamlet of Seymour Arm. He continued to paint in western Canada, becoming famous as the “Recluse of the Rockies”. Quebec’s Alexander Fortune was an Overlander who came for gold on the Columbia River, but fell in love with the natural meadowlands on the Spallumcheen River. He was first to pre-empt farmland near Enderby. Neskonlith Chief George Manuel survived residential school in Kamloops and later rose to prominence with the National Indian Brotherhood to became the first president of the UN affiliate, World Council of Indigenous Peoples. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times. Pioneer conservationist Scotty Mitchell worked at Granite Creek Hatchery and one hundred years ago wrote about the demise of the precious sockeye runs. He wanted a halt to fishing until the stocks recovered and, “criticized the early settlers who pitch forked wagonloads of salmon to fertilize their crops and who wantonly shot the hawks and ospreys that prayed on the ling cod.” There are other intriguing characters and community builders.
Cooperman draws on detailed writings of ethnographer James Teit (who later campaigned for retribution for aboriginal people), Hudson’s Bay Company Journals, explorer/surveyor George Mercer Dawson (who wrote the first study of Shuswap culture) to shape the early contact period. Inland Sentinal newspaper accounts, local archives and the voices of pioneers themselves unravel the story of settler culture. It’s often said that British Columbia is remarkable for its geographic diversity; Everything Shuswap makes a convincing case for better understanding and appreciating one of this province’s best kept secrets. Set your compass -- or GPS -- for the Shuswap.
**The students of School District #83 will benefit from book sales that are being directed to outdoor learning, and Everything Shuswap will become a classroom resource.
“Thank God...this is better than gold.” Alexander Fortune, first settler at Enderby, 1866
The man is wearing an Adams River Salmon Run cap, bent low to the water and snapping photos of sockeye salmon thrashing near his feet. His smile seems as wide as the river itself. A record sockeye return has been painting the Adams River red, and people from around the world are fanned out along its banks to experience a magnificent bounty. This is a scene from Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park in 2010 where I first encountered outdoors enthusiast, environmental campaigner and fish lover, Jim Cooperman.
A resident of nearby Lee Creek for 48 years, he recently explained to CBC Radio that he was faced with a decision in 1969: “Go to jail, Vietnam or Canada -- which would you choose?” He headed north, built a log home with his wife, raised 5 children and worked at teaching, log home building and environmental advocacy. He began writing an outdoors column called Shuswap Passion for the Shuswap Market News, it was a personal dispatch for environmental stewardship. After a dozen years, that column has shapeshifted into a 240 page book.
Everything Shuswap spans geographic and human history: geology, ecosystems, watersheds, early contact with Secwepemc people and the tide of fur traders, gold seekers and pioneers who followed. There are boomtowns (some have retreated into bush), sternwheelers and railways that carried thousands into the region; historical and ecosystem maps, graphs and abundant archival and contemporary images. Once promoted as the “New Eldorado” to prospective fruit farmers in Europe and the U.S., the Shuswap landscape has been shaped by industrial development, dams, logging and agriculture. Some of its finest features have also been preserved in provincial parks, like Hunakwa Lake, “arguably the largest unroaded, protected wilderness lakes in the interior of North America at low elevation.”
Sandwiched between the more famous Okanagan, Kootenay and Thompson areas, the Shuswap is a region unto itself. Most British Columbians aren’t familiar with it, drive through it, or think it’s all about speed boats, houseboats and ATVs. The Shuswap watershed is vast -- a 9,644 square kilometre jigsaw puzzle of sub-drainages between the Thompson Plateau and Monashee Mountains. Its southern rivers and creeks stretch into what many consider the North Okanagan (at Grinrod); includes the Shuswap River, Adams River and Lake (second deepest in B.C. and nursery for 20% of the Fraser River sockeye runs), the Salmon, Spallumcheen and Eagle Rivers -- plus half a dozen others. Cooperman guides us through each watershed, pausing at key parks, valleys, old growth forests (including an interior rainforest), providing relevant historical context along the way. Early chapters on ecology and geology trace the physical landscape, while stories and profiles of indigenous peoples and settlers occupy most of the pages. There is a strong sense of place throughout.
“The underlying concept behind this book Is called bioregionalism, -- or politics of place, a term coined in the 1970s by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann. Bioregionalism is a way of life that focuses on regional self-sufficiency, environmental and economic sustainability, and a political structure that encourages citizen participation in local decision-making...the Shuswap is well situated to achieve bioregional objectives, as this region is blessed with rich farmland, plentiful and clean sources of water, a stellar cultural scene, stunning landscapes, and many close-knit communities.”
Among the historical figures profiled is English painter, Charles John Collings, whose work hangs in Canada’s National Gallery and London’s Royal Academy. After being compared to British artist J.M.W. Turner once too often, he pulled up stakes in 1910 to homestead with his family at the remote hamlet of Seymour Arm. He continued to paint in western Canada, becoming famous as the “Recluse of the Rockies”. Quebec’s Alexander Fortune was an Overlander who came for gold on the Columbia River, but fell in love with the natural meadowlands on the Spallumcheen River. He was first to pre-empt farmland near Enderby. Neskonlith Chief George Manuel survived residential school in Kamloops and later rose to prominence with the National Indian Brotherhood to became the first president of the UN affiliate, World Council of Indigenous Peoples. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times. Pioneer conservationist Scotty Mitchell worked at Granite Creek Hatchery and one hundred years ago wrote about the demise of the precious sockeye runs. He wanted a halt to fishing until the stocks recovered and, “criticized the early settlers who pitch forked wagonloads of salmon to fertilize their crops and who wantonly shot the hawks and ospreys that prayed on the ling cod.” There are other intriguing characters and community builders.
Cooperman draws on detailed writings of ethnographer James Teit (who later campaigned for retribution for aboriginal people), Hudson’s Bay Company Journals, explorer/surveyor George Mercer Dawson (who wrote the first study of Shuswap culture) to shape the early contact period. Inland Sentinal newspaper accounts, local archives and the voices of pioneers themselves unravel the story of settler culture. It’s often said that British Columbia is remarkable for its geographic diversity; Everything Shuswap makes a convincing case for better understanding and appreciating one of this province’s best kept secrets. Set your compass -- or GPS -- for the Shuswap.
**The students of School District #83 will benefit from book sales that are being directed to outdoor learning, and Everything Shuswap will become a classroom resource.
Submitted on August 17, 2017 in By David.
